Developers Avoiding Vista

While Bill Gates claims that Vista is selling well, the big question is how many customers out there are requesting software with Vista specific technology. The answer came in a recent survey of developers claimed that less than 1 in 12 developers were actively developing software that was Vista-specific.

Is the continued existence of XP causing this? Or is it something deeper? The answer probably has a lot to do with both.

"None of our customers are saying, 'G******it, we need those WPF controls now!'" said Julian Bucknall, CTO for Windows programming tools maker Developer Express Inc. , referring to one of Vista's most highly-touted features, its new graphical subsystem, Windows Presentation Foundation. Rather, "we find most are still sticking with ASP.Net and Windows Forms applications."

The bottom line is that developers like tried and true technologies and won’t move away from them unless customers demand it. Those same customers are largely pulling to keep XP around, so obviously they haven’t seen the value in those new technologies yet. If customers don't have the need for new features that only Vista can supply then they are unlikely to make demands from their software suppliers. This gives software developers extra time to determine if they’ll make the jump, or if they’ll wait for the next big thing.